Servant of Evil
by ylfrettub
Summary: In darkness, we are all the same. Enter Kaito, a misguided amnesiac seeking his memories, Meiko, an experiment desperately trying to escape the past, and the rest of the city, left to face their own inner demons. Can they ever make it right?
1. Rooftop

She held the metal bat high above her head. Tears gathered in her eyes at the thought of what she was about to do.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and she slammed the bat against his head.

* * *

><p>Kaito walked slowly down the dark and deserted city streets, licking his ice cream every couple steps. It was dangerous to be by yourself at this time of night, especially in this city that he called home. Kaito knew the horror stories, and he ignored them, just to see if they were true. After all, what was life without a little spice?<p>

Old, condemned buildings lined the street. They had been damaged or destroyed in the last war, and no one had cared enough to rebuild them, so they stood there in ruins, a shadow of their former glory. The buildings reminded Kaito of old toys long forgotten and left to collect dust and mold in a basement or attic. He pitied them, no matter how strange it seemed to feel sorry for a building, since they reminded him of himself.

Seeing something attached to a building, he walked over to see a sign and read it as he finished eating the waffle cone of his ice cream. According to the sign, a school was going to be built where the buildings now stood. There would be enough space to make a school large enough to help with the city's school overcrowding problem while still providing for it's students and would be in an area where a lot of families lived. Everyone would benefit, if everything went well.

Licking his fingers, Kaito continued walking back to the tiny, dingy apartment he shared with Gakupo, who had come to visit him while he was in the hospital and claimed to have known him before his accident. He had a picture of the two of them together, so Kaito decided not to question it and moved in with the older man. After only a week, Kaito deduced that Gakupo was hiding something, and it wasn't only because he had found a stash of weapons hidden beneath a floorboard.

Gakupo seemed like an ordinary teacher who didn't get paid enough, but if Kaito concentrated on it, he heard the weary undertones of someone who had been through a lot hidden in Gakupo's voice. Once, when he had looked at Kaito, his mask had slipped and Kaito saw his eyes properly. They were filled with a mixture of pity, regret, anger, and something he couldn't quite name. All too soon the mask was back in place, and Kaito realized that Gakupo knew him a lot better than he let on. They had definitely been more than "acquaintances". There was no way a person you barely knew would invite you to stay with them unless they had unless there was an ulterior motive.

All he had to do now was figure out Gakupo's real reason behind taking him in. The fact that the man was gone teaching for most of the day and randomly disappeared some nights left Kaito with great snooping opportunities.

Click!

Kaito tensed at the unnatural sound in the night. That sound was familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place where it was from. About a block ahead of him, he saw someone that looked to be a woman stumble out of a dark alley and into the poorly lit street. Curiosity and worry for the safety of the person drove Kaito to walk slightly faster whilst still keeping a good distance behind. He didn't want to seem threatening when he was trying to help.

As he passed the alley the person had come out of, he failed to see the eyes that watched him suspiciously from the shadows, or notice how the person he was following no longer had a slight swagger in their step and was noticeably speeding up.

The second Kaito had the alley behind him, a group of men burst from it and pushed past him, heading directly for the person Kaito had wanted to help. Hearing the footsteps, the person had looked behind their shoulder, and Kaito could now tell that it _was _a woman. She began to run, heading into another alley.

Questioning the idea of heading into a closed space when you were being chased, Kaito began to sprint after the men. His long legs were well-suited to running, and he quickly caught up with the others as they stood at the entrance to the shadowy space between two of the dilapidated buildings.

The woman was nowhere to be seen.

"Where could she have…" started one of the men, a short, messy-haired person. From the high pitch of his voice, Kaito realized that he was actually only a boy. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the other two "men" were actually boys as well, and at least a year younger than him.

"There!" shouted the person to his left, pointing a finger at the far wall. He was taller than the first, with hair that was…silver?

"She's climbing the fire escape!"

The men (boys), with Kaito not far behind them, ran to the wall and began to climb the rusted fire escape, making the badly maintained structure groan with the effort of carrying so many people. They raced up the four flights, pieces of the metal escape falling to the ground with a clang. It would be nearly impossible to get down from the roof safely now.

Hiding behind the roof ledge, Kaito was relieved at the fact that no one had cared enough to notice his presence, but he still had no idea about what was going on. Until he did, or at least until he was noticed, Kaito decided to stay in his temporary hiding place. He'd only get involved if something broke out between the four people, and it seemed like things were about to start happening.

"No."

Kaito's nervous thoughts vanished from his mind as he heard the woman speak. She might have said only one word, only one syllable, but it sparked something in Kaito's forgotten memories. He knew that voice, knew that woman on the roof, and suddenly, he felt a wave of newfound anger and protectiveness course through him. No one was going to hurt her, not if he had anything to say about it.

Peering over the edge of the roof, he focused on the conversation at hand.

"You know we can't accept 'No', Meiko," said the last boy, who Kaito remembered to be the tallest of the three, and probably the oldest.

_Meiko! _thought Kaito. _I know I knew you!_ _But I can't remember how…_

"It seems everyone's turned against me now, " stated the newly identified Meiko. "Even my own brother has turned on me."

The one that Meiko had addressed as her brother shifted his feet against the cement rooftop. A slight scratching noise was made. He was either trying to discreetly change his position or was trying (and failing) to hide how the words cut into him. Kaito was betting on the second option.

"Are you sure you won't reconsider?" asked the silver haired one. His voice had a hint of panic in it, as though he were worried about what might happen to Meiko if she refused whatever they were offering her.

"Quite," spat Meiko, and Kaito could picture the venom in her eyes as she glared at the three not-quite-men-but-not-boys-either.

"Then so be it," her brother said coldly, and he and his group rushed at her.

Kaito nearly jumped in to help, but something held him back. He wanted to see if Meiko could hold her own in a fight. By the way that she hit the shortest one in the chest with a roundhouse kick, Kaito decided that yes, Meiko could defend herself, and she would probably kick his ass for trying to help.

_Kick me in the… _thought Kaito. _Where did that come from?_

Sighing, he continued to watch Meiko brutally beat down her attackers. Despite their perseverance, Meiko was the one with more fighting experience and less hesitation in hurting people. She probably would have won, too, if her brother hadn't snuck up behind her and stabbed her in the back with a knife.

Meiko tensed for a few seconds, and that was all the time it took for the tides to turn. The short boy hit her with an uppercut to the jaw, and Meiko stumbled backward. Silver-hair guy wrenched the knife out of Meiko's back, and she turned on him instantly despite the pain she must have been in to give him a well-deserved punch to the face.

As Kaito jumped into the fray, he heard a loud crack and figured that Meiko had broken the boy's nose. Her brother might have deserved it just a tiny bit more for sticking the knife in her in the first place, but this one was just as responsible.

Hiding in the shadows, Kaito came up behind the shortest of the three boys. Deciding to deal with him in the simplest way possible, Kaito covered his mouth with a hand and squeezed the kid's neck in the crook of his arm. A few minutes and he would be unconscious from the lack of oxygen.

The boy thrashed violently, trying to get out of Kaito's hold, but it was to no avail. Kaito was stronger than him and had the boy pinned tightly to his body. There was no way he would escape unless he managed to free Kaito's fingers from the pressure points that paralyzed his arms.

Finally giving up, the boy tilted his head up as much as he could. Bright blue eyes beginning to glaze over glared at Kaito until he was conscious no longer. Kaito let the body slip to the ground and searched out his next target.

So far, no one had noticed the disappearance of the youngest boy. Sneaking behind his next target, the silver-haired boy, Kaito struck him in a pressure point at the back of his neck, knocking him out. He would probably be grateful for the escape from his broken nose, but Kaito decided not to dwell on that.

Meiko and her brother were still fighting, and neither was going to give up anytime soon. They were completely oblivious to the fact that they were the only two (excluding Kaito) left on the roof. Kaito decided to stay in his current position, hidden in the shadow of a neighboring building but still close enough to see everything properly.

After what seemed like ages but in reality was only around five minutes later, Meiko struck the final blow, a powerful kick to her still unnamed (to Kaito, at any rate) brother's head. He probably could have dodged it, but Kaito suspected that he had never really planned on beating his sister, so when he saw an opening for the fight to end, he accepted his defeat.

Not sure of what to do, Kaito stepped forward. His footstep echoed in the quiet of the near moonless night, and Meiko looked up at him. She had been leaning against her knees, trying to catch her breath. Her brother's betrayal had hurt her deeper than the knife he'd stabbed into her, and she felt guilty about having hurt him. But that was the furthest thing from her mind as she heard a footstep echo around the roof and turned to see who had made it. The person standing there was one Meiko never expected to see again.

"Kaito…" she breathed, and a great rumbling was heard as the building collapsed, plunging the two conscious humans into complete darkness.


	2. Intertwined

"Do it," he ordered, and the executioner walked toward the two "sleeping" girls, his knife nearly glowing in the pale light.

"No!" wailed the other prisoner, a boy tied to a chair. He continued in a raspy whisper.

"I'll join you. Just…Don't hurt them. Please."

The man smiled and called off his subordinate.

"I knew you'd see the light."

* * *

><p>Eyelids heavy, Len opened them slowly to dim light, trying to get his bearings. He'd snuck out last night, met Dell and Meito at the abandoned warehouse, and chased after their target, Meiko. They were up on a roof, fighting broke out, and then…Then what? What had happened to him after the fighting started? Meito had stabbed his sister (Would he ever have to hurt Rin like that? Would he be able to do it?) and then his mind was at a complete blank.<p>

It was as though he hadn't been awake…Yes! That was it! Some guy (An unknown accomplice of Meiko, maybe?) had come from behind and started choking him while pinning down all of his limbs at the same time. Despite Len's struggles to break free, there was no escape. All he managed to do was lower his already falling oxygen supply.

But before he passed out from the choking, Len decided to get a good look at the guy's face. It wasn't an old face, per say, but it wasn't a young one either, like an old soul trapped in a young body. He looked to be older than Meito, so that put him at somewhere in his mid-to-late 20s, but what Len remembered clearest about the man was the color blue.

He'd had a blue scarf, blue eyes, even blue hair! Strange as it seemed, the man was anything but silly. His gaze was so cold toward Len as they locked eyes it was like he was frozen in ice. But that was all that he'd gotten to observe before he finally succumbed into darkness.

Now, trying to figure out what had happened, Len realized that he was lying on a bed of rubble, hard and rough against him. His body was sore, probably covered with bruises, and, judging from the state he was in, Len concluded that the building had collapsed. It hadn't been able to hold their weight. Wriggling his limbs to see if anything was broken, Len found that everything was fine until he got to his left leg. When he'd tried to move it even the slightest amount, excruciating pain flew up his leg. It was definitely broken, and the only reason why he'd been oblivious to it before now was the fact that his body was numb from staying in the same position for who-knows-how-long.

Now, after waking up a bit and trying to move, Len had aggravated the wound, causing it to throb painfully. He ignored it as best he could and tried to lift his head to get a better look, but now any type of motion hurt. Until someone (hopefully Meito or Dell) came along, Len was a sitting duck.

After what seemed like ages staring at the ever lightening sky, Len heard someone speak. Reminded that he should be at home in his bed, just waking up for another day of school, he instantly thought of Rin yelling at Miku to get up in the morning, or they would be late again. Instead of the usual ranting, he heard someone (probably Meiko, since it was a woman yelling, and the voice was the same) repeating a name.

"Kaito," she'd said, her words quiet and tinted with disbelief but loud enough for someone nearby to hear. She must have been behind one of the rubble piles blocking his already limited view. What cursed luck Len had.

No response.

"Kaito," she continued, her voice stronger and edged with annoyance.

Still no response.

"Kaito!" she yelled, completely annoyed, and by the way she was shouting Len knew that she not only knew the blue-haired man, who was now identified as Kaito, but also knew him well enough to drop any honorifics to his name. That was interesting. Perhaps they could get to Meiko by harming Kaito? But he'd already proven he was in his element when up against others, by the way he's snuck up behind Len and choked him without anyone else noticing. Even in the dark, it was an open area, and being able to do something like that took skill.

Len filed this information away in a corner of his mind for later pondering.

"Bakaito! Wake up now or I will unleash my wrath upon your pitiful existence!"

Meiko's latest statement earned a snicker from Len. It must have been horrible to be a friend of Meiko's. She sounded like she would abuse the hell out of you if you so much as looked at her wrong. But her latest shout seemed to have some effect, for he heard the sound of gravel and brick chunks being displaced as someone moved from their bed of wreckage. Seeing a head of blue hair pop up over the small mountains of what used to be a building, Len was able to confirm that yes, yelling at someone could get things done, in the right circumstances.

Kaito (he assumed, after all, it _was_ the same man from last night) shook some dust out of his hair and ambled over to a spot to Len's left, apparently still too tired to function completely normally. The blue hair disappeared, once again being covered by the mounds of rubble. Frustrated about his situation but mostly his boredom, Len growled. Why did everything about his life have to be such a mess?

Shaking off the unwanted memories, Len tried to catch snatches of the quiet conversation just to his left.

* * *

><p>Meiko hated feeling weak. She hated needing help, especially from Bakaito, who shouldn't have been there anyway. Ignoring the memories that came to the front of her mind, she glared up at him, knowing he would think it was <em>his <em>fault she was so cranky.

How an innocent idiot like him got roped into their business, Meiko would never know (tell).

"Well?" she asked him, exasperated. "Are you going to keep looking down at me or are you going to help me up?"

Mild confusion was written all over Kaito's face, but he leaned down to help her up anyway. Putting one arm around her upper back and beneath her arms and the other under her knees, Kaito lifted Meiko up without any difficulty. He set her down on her feet lightly and let go. After the initial unsteadiness, Meiko was able to stand on her own.

Trying (and failing) to ignore the protest her back gave at being stretched, Meiko looked around to see if anyone else was on top of the ruins, calmly ignoring the irritated boy right in front of her. After all, she had an image to keep.

"Meiko," growled the boy, who finally got the woman to look at him.

"Len," she replied coolly, the barest hint of a You-don't-know-how-much-I-want-to-hurt-you lacing her voice.

Kaito stood slightly behind her, listening to the conversation and waiting patiently for something to do. Even if he had no idea what was going on or how he got involved in it, it was much easier to stay in the background and learn what he could. Sorting everything out looked like it was going to take awhile, anyway.

"Fine then," continued Meiko. "We'll help you, on the condition that you won't sell me out to your group the second you get back."

"I agree," Len answered reluctantly.

Meiko rolled her eyes and called out to Kaito.

"Come on. Help me lift him up."

* * *

><p>Walking along the empty city streets, Dell couldn't help but look behind him every few minutes and start snickering.<p>

"What the hell is so damn _funny_?" growled Len, who was being carried by Meito. According to Kaito (a.k.a. The Enemy of Anatomy) Len hadn't broken a bone, but he would probably need a cast while it healed. Since he was also unable to walk on said leg and Dell couldn't carry him, Meito was forced into carrying Len around until they got to wherever it was they were going. So far, Len hadn't told either of his teammates and they hadn't asked, so that was the end of that.

"Turn left at the corner," Len instructed Dell, who was being blindly followed by Meito. "Then the fifth house on the right."

Curious as to why Len hadn't told him why they were in the residential area of the city, Dell followed his directions, deciding that it was easier to simply listen to the temperamental boy. That was a lesson he had learned the hard way. Teenagers these days were apparently very good at getting what they wanted, and Len's seemingly natural craftiness drove him nuts. He'd sooner quit smoking than try to debate with Len.

Coming back to the present, Dell took in the house in front of him. It was two stories tall, with bricks that had long ago lost their color. Concrete steps led to the front door, which was missing the outer screen door and looking like it would fall over at the slightest push. All of the windows were dark.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Dell asked skeptically. "It looks like every other building in this forsaken city. Old, creepy, and on its last legs."

"Yeah, sounds about right," countered Len. "Now knock on the door before she goes away."

Dell turned to face Len and raised an eyebrow, but the boy just smiled and gestured at the door with his hand. Still skeptical, Dell walked up the steps and knocked on the door with the back of his hand. To his surprise, he heard several locks click and the door opened a crack to reveal a sea-foam green eye. He stepped back and would have fallen down the stairs if not for the hand that reached out and grabbed his, pulling him pack to the top step.

"Honne-san?" asked the green-eyed woman. "Are you all right?"

"G-Gumi-san!" exclaimed Dell, even more startled than before. "You live _here_? And, uh, yes, I'm fine."

"That's good to hear," Gumi replied in her soft voice. "Who's that behind you?"

She leaned around Dell to see Len glaring daggers at Dell's back from his spot in Meito's arms.

"Oh! Len-kun, Meito-san!" The two turned to look at her upon hearing their names, and Len was instantly happier.

"It's nice to see you two. But why are you here at this time of the morning? How do you even know where I- Never mind. I'd rather not know. Anyways, come inside. You really shouldn't stand out there…"

Stepping back inside her house, Gumi held her door open for the two-and-a-half men. Dell ambled in, trying not to seem like a complete idiot in front of his classmate. He thanked her as he walked by, but didn't turn to look at Gumi's face, which was contorted into a cross between a frown and smirk from trying to hold back her laughter. By the time Meito and Len made it to the door, she had managed to fix her face back into an expression of mild surprise.

Gumi shut the door and took a deep breath. Her surprise had been faked. She knew something was up when she heard the building collapse last night, and the noise from this morning was probably the boys digging themselves out of the mess. They'd probably been on an assignment for _them _and ended up facing minor (major) difficulties.

Turning around, she fixed the three idiots with a cold stare.

"I know what you are and I know what you're doing," she said flatly. "So don't try to lie to me because I will report you. Don't tell me about it, don't ask how I know, just tell me where it hurts."

She paused for effect, knowing that the three were completely buying her bluff.

"_Got it?"_

* * *

><p>Meiko dragged herself along, ignoring the worried Kaito behind her who rushed to help every time she so much as stumbled. She did not need help. She would not let herself be helped. She definitely did not need <em>his <em>help.

_He should've been dead, _said a little voice in the back of her head.

Meiko stopped in her tracks. Why would she even think of something like that? She never wanted…It shouldn't have…Everything just…

Overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of memories (and blood loss) Meiko collapsed. When Kaito caught her so she wouldn't hit the floor, she was already out cold.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Thanks for the Reviews, Story Alerts, Favs, and even just stopping to read my story! It means a lot to me.<p>

Oh, and I thought that was a good place to end the chapter, so there.

If you're curious about what had happened to Meito and Dell, what the heck Gumi's talking about, who _them_ is, and what Meiko's relationship to Kaito is, don't worry, it gets explained.

Just not soon.


	3. Differences

"Why do they hate us so much?"

"Huh?" I looked up at my little brother. I'd been sitting, cleaning my blade, when he asked a question out of the blue. This happened often enough, but I'll probably never get used to it.

"Mother and Father," he continued. "Well, mostly Father. Mother just looks guilty and turns away. Sometimes I think I can hear her cry."

He looked down at me, probably expecting me to say something. There was nothing to say. He was exactly right about everything, and I couldn't find some way to comfort him about it if I tried. Not that I would try to make him feel any better, but still…

* * *

><p>"Miku! Miku, get up! We're gonna be late again!"<p>

Rin sighed loudly. Every single day she had to make sure Miku got up sometime before eight in the morning so they could get to school on time, but it was a wasted effort. Miku slept like the dead. The only hope of making her get past half-awake was to drag her out of bed, and even then it sometimes wasn't successful. Clearly, the two were going to be late. Again.

"Come on!" Rin whined, tugging at the arm of the older girl. Miku grunted and turned over, successfully dislodging Rin from her arm.

"It's too early to get up. Can't school start in the afternoon?" Miku yawned through the second sentence, but Rin understood it anyway.

"No, it can't!" Rin yelled back. "And if we don't leave now, we're gonna be late for the 30th time this month, and then Kiyoteru-sensei will give us detention. Like the last 5 months, I might add."

The fourteen-year-old sighed again.

"Maybe you just want to sleep, but _I _have better things to do than sit in that classroom at the end of the month wondering if Sensei blinks during detention. I mean, seriously, he watches all of us like a hawk eyeing some plump field mice or something. Or maybe he _was _a hawk in a past life and now the spirit is channeling its energy through his human form when we're all sitting there like unsuspecting mice or something."

She didn't notice Miku slip quietly out of bed and head into the bathroom.

"But if Kiyoteru-sensei really is watching us like a hungry bird, that's kind of a creepy thought, isn't it? But I'm pretty sure he's not _that _kind of a person, 'cause he blatantly rejects all the girls who try to propose to him! Like, he's even colder than Len in rejecting fangirls, and Len is downright mean to begin with. So if Len is cold as ice and Sensei's colder than ice, then Sensei must be Pluto! That sounds about right, doesn't it, Miku? Miku?"

"Right here, Rin," Miku answered from the doorway to Rin's left. "I can't stand the sound of your random nonsense in the morning, so I decided I would rather go to school, which really should start later."

"You know," argued Rin, "if you went to sleep earlier we wouldn't have this problem every single morning."

"I sleep plenty!" Miku retorted as the two started down the stairs directly in front of the room.

"Yeah, you go to bed at three in the morning every day, yet you still think you sleep enough. No wonder I can't get you up."

Miku loudly cleared her throat. "You sleep at the same time I do, Rin. So how come you never have problems waking up?"

Smiling, Rin looked at Miku. "Because I'm magical like that."

Taking deep breaths, Miku resisted the urge to hit Rin. After five minutes, she figured she was calm enough to talk to Rin without giving her a piece of her mind for her ambiguous answers and random rants.

"Hey, Rin?" she asked, as they started the three-mile walk to the academy, "What happened to Len?"

"He probably left without us," Rin replied, rolling her eyes. "He does everything too _early_. I mean, really, what kind of person gets up at five in the morning all seven days of the week, does all their projects the first day they get it, actually reads in his free time, and stays up late to do _extra credit _when he already has perfect grades?"

"Umm, Len?" Miku guessed, trying to mess with Rin's head.

"Why you-" Rin tried to strangle Miku, and the two ended up wrestling on the side of the road instead of going to school. By the time they had given up play fighting and were simply laughing their heads off over the things they argued over, they were beyond late for class.

Thirty-seven minutes and fifteen seconds later, the girls stumbled into second period math, panting and sweaty. Kiyoteru didn't turn to look at them from the problem he was writing on the board, but the rest of the students were now giving their full attention to the front of the room.

"Detention for the next month," Kiyoteru stated, stopping to look down at the book in his hand.

"But-!" the girls began to protest, only to be interrupted by the teacher.

"Two months."

"You can't-" started Rin.

"Three months."

"We live-" Miku squeaked.

"Four months. Would you like me to include physical labor?"

"Isn't that illegal?" Rin asked, tilting her head.

Kiyoteru paused in his writing.

"Only my kind of work," he said. The class could hear the smirk in his voice.

Rin and Miku sighed as they took their seats.

* * *

><p>Luka growled as she walked down the white halls of the hospital. What had she been thinking when she decided to become Len and Rin's legal guardian? Those two were more trouble than they were worth. Rin didn't know the definition of <em>quiet, <em>and Len had to be the sneakiest, most observant, two-faced person on the planet. Not only did he charm her into believing he was just a poor street urchin with problems, he also beat her at poker, found a way around every single thing she told him, and could spot a loophole, contradiction, or error in _anything. _

So how…? How! How did he manage to need a cast on his leg? Surely, if the boy was as clever as he acted, he could have avoided something like injuring himself badly enough to get into the hospital. Luka shook her head. He _was _only 14, but sometimes she forgot he was so young. Len could pass as her age with the way he acted, and if his voice wasn't so high, he'd probably scam people into thinking he was older instead of younger…

She stopped in front of the door to his room and was about to open it when she heard someone call her name.

"Excuse me! Are you Megurine-san?"

Luka turned to look at a boy who could pass as Miku's twin. Even his voice was like Miku's!

Taken aback, Luka blurted the first thing that came to mind. "Are you old enough to work here? Shouldn't you be in school or something?"

The boy laughed as he scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah, I should be in school, shouldn't I? I'm a volunteer from the high school in the next town over, and since I've decided to become a doctor, they just decided to have me work here, since they're always understaffed and stuff. It's a kind of hands-on training, I guess? I still have to learn for my regular classes, so I don't have a lot of free time, but it's worth it. I'm Mikuo, by the way. Oh, and Len-kun's doctor, but I guess you figured that out already…"

Luka was still shocked about his similarity to Miku. Everything about the two was extremely similar, except for the whole boy/girl thing, but really, it couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

"But there's something strange about how he got his injury, and that's what worries me."

Mikuo's voice broke into Luka's musings.

"According to him, he got hit by a car on his way to school and fell down a small cliff, hitting his leg on some rocks at the bottom. Then, a while later, someone he knows, Gumi-san, I think, saw him as she was driving and took him here."

"What's wrong with that?" asked Luka, though she had a bad feeling about where this was going.

"His story is believable, but there are a lot of errors in it when you go over it carefully. The bruising on his back and abdomen would fit with being hit by a car and rolling down a rocky cliff, except for the bruises being too old for only a few hours ago. They were there last night, at the earliest. The same goes for his cracked tibia. There's no way it was broken this morning. There was no sign of a concussion, so we either missed something or he's trying to get me to believe his story…"

Mikuo trailed off, unsure of how Luka would take the news.

"There's something else, isn't there?" Luka prodded. "Tell me what it is."

"Last night, one of the old apartment building collapsed. The construction workers said it should have been stable enough as long as no one disturbed the building, and Len-kun, he was admitted with two others, who were also covered in bruises. I think that the three were at the abandoned complex, up on the roof, when the building collapsed on them. If that is what happened, everything fits together perfectly, but they'd have to be arrested for trespassing and possibly destruction of property…"

Luka look through the little window that let her gaze into Len's room. He was facing the window on the opposite side, but there was nothing visible other than the gray sky. The pink-haired woman wondered what he was thinking about. Sure, he cheated people out of things and contradicted everyone for his own personal benefit, but Len wasn't a rule breaker. If anything, he followed rules and laws better than Luka, and she had been an officer on the force. Len wasn't a criminal, was he?

"Thank you, Mikuo-sensei. I'll think about it." Breathing in deeply, Luka clutched the door handle and softly pushed open the surprisingly heavy door. Mikuo followed her as she stepped into the room. Hearing the click of the door opening and the footsteps that followed, Len turned to look at the newcomers. His face briefly showed panic when he saw Luka, and she didn't miss it.

_Damn, _she thought. _I still look like I did when Mikuo gave me his theory…But if I change expressions now, Len will definitely know something's up. Better look like a grim sister._

"Good morning, Luka-nee, Mikuo-sensei." Len greeted the two warmly, as though he appreciated the visitors.

_Fine. I'll play along._

"Len!" Luka exclaimed. "How many times have I told you to stop walking in the middle of the middle of the road? You were bound to get run over someday. I hope you learned something important from this."

"Oh, I did learn something important," Len replied mockingly. "If I do get run over by another car, I'll make sure I can't remember our phone number."

"Well, that's okay," Luka said, smiling, "Because we're going to the tattoo shop when your leg is healed to get our information permanently branded on your arm."

Mikuo watched the banter between the two in a mix of confusion and amusement. What exactly was going on here? Did Luka not believe him? Or was this some sort of code that only made sense to them? He shook his head and took a seat in the visitors' chair by the window, waiting for the room's other two occupants to finish their conversation.

* * *

><p>Carrying a body across town was not something Kaito had planned on doing again. Yet here he was, dragging himself back home, taking an unconscious woman that he couldn't quite remember with him. Gakupo would not be pleased. (Not that he was ever <em>happy <em>over anything, but this was a questionable truth.)

Finally, after what seemed to be hours of walking down the (not-so-strangely) deserted streets, Kaito reached the front door to his apartment building. He kicked open the old wooden door that no longer closed properly and headed up the twelve flights of stairs that lead to the actual apartment. Halfway up, Kaito considered the ease of elevators a blessing, but there was no way he was going to take the death trap of an elevator in this building. Someone had actually managed to prove that walking across the highway was safer than taking the elevator in this apartment, and even the skeptical Gakupo agreed. That was a good enough reason for the blue-haired man to not even consider the other way to get up to their floor.

Two burning arms and tired legs later, Kaito stood at the front door to his shared living space, only to realize that he had no way to get in. He'd forgotten his key inside the cuckoo clock and since Gakupo couldn't have been back from his "late-night errands",

Kaito was locked outside the only home he remembered. Despairing at his horrible luck, he set Meiko against the wall beside the door and caught sight of a bobby pin in her hair. Not understanding why he was doing it, he pulled the pin out gently and inserted it into the keyhole. Then he jiggled it around a bit, feeling for how he should shape the pin to fit the lock. A short time later, the door clicked open, and Kaito half-carried, half-dragged Meiko inside to the living room/bedroom, then to the bathroom, where he leaned her against the side of the bathtub and went to close the front door, which had been rebuilt by the previous owners so that it actually served its purpose. For this, Kaito was grateful, because in Darkness, the things that go _bump _in the night are real, very real.

Fighting his sleepiness, Kaito leaned down in front of the sink to open the doors of the cabinet beneath it. The new white paint seemed out of place in the otherwise faded colors of the tiny bathroom. Not stopping to think about it, Kaito pulled open the doors and dug through the bottles of cleaning solvents, soap boxes, and other assorted things, trying to find Gakupo's medicine stash. Surely, if he had a weapons stash, there'd be a medicine stash as well, right? Kaito hoped so, and finally, he found what he was looking for. Hidden behind a jumbo container of conditioner was a first aid kit surrounded by other odds and ends that would come in useful for treating injuries.

He grabbed the first-aid kit, a roll of gauze, adhesive tape, and a tube of ointment and set then carefully on the floor next to him. Standing up, he reached for the metal shelf above the toilet as he shut the doors of the cabinet with his left foot. From the cabinet, he grabbed a washcloth and then he turned his attention back to the sink. Kaito turned the hot water tap and let it run for a bit before he turned the cold water tap. When he stuck a hand under the faucet to see if it was warm, his skin was greeted only by freezing water. The water heater had broken down again. Great.

Ignoring the minor setback in the plans he had that he didn't quite know how he got, Kaito grabbed the unscented bar of soap on the sink top and washed his hands. He then ran the washcloth under the water, wringing it out once it was completely soaked through so that it was not dripping wet. Turning around, he kneeled down so that he was once again level with Meiko and turned her over so he could properly see the wound on her back. It seemed that although Meiko's brother had had the perfect opportunity to stab her in a vulnerable place, he missed all the vital organs on purpose. The knife left a deep wound, but the cut itself was very narrow. Meiko had been struck with a kitchen knife of sorts, and by the look of things it was a butter knife.

No, Meiko's brother had never set out to hurt his sister at all. Although the dull blade of a butter knife would lead to more damage compared to a pointed, sharp, paring knife, there was no way that the boy had even planned on hitting a vital organ.

Smiling slightly, Kaito set to work patching up Meiko.

Ripping the lower half of her shirt off, Kaito cleaned the blood off Meiko using the washcloth. Now that he could better see the wound, he found it wasn't even half as bad as what he'd thought it would be. Sure, the knife had gone it pretty deep; the pain would probably be terrible, and it would leave a scar, but Meiko wasn't dead. Knowing it was wiser not to peel the thin layer of skin that had started to form over the wound, even if the skin had torn after being jostled around too much, Kaito opened the tube of ointment and applied some to the injury. Then, slowly and carefully, he took the role of bandages and wrapped up Meiko's abdomen.

Satisfied with his work, Kaito carried Meiko back to the living room turned bedroom and set her down on his futon. He covered her with his blanket and exhausted, curled up beside her.

* * *

><p>"So, what do you think? Will they be prosecuted?" Luka asked her questions to the taller person walking beside her as they climbed the stairs to his apartment.<p>

Gakupo was silent for a moment as he contemplated the question. As he slid the key into the lock, he gave Luka his answer.

"Considering the circumstances, if this is even cared about at all, probably-" he started, only to cut himself off. There in front of him was something he had expected (and secretly hoped) would never happen again.

Meiko was straddling Kaito, growling and trying to punch him. Kaito was watching her with a blank expression on his face, holding back her fist with his left hand, his other arm pinned to his side by Meiko's left hand. After a few moments, the two turned to look in the direction of the door, their brains finally catching up with their ears.

Luka looked up at Gakupo through the corners of her eyes.

_Dammit, this is bad…_she thought. Shifting slightly, she got into a position that allowed her to spring, but it was too late. Katana in hand, Gakupo lunged for Meiko.

* * *

><p>I really hate how the ending is...my inspiration died on me...on the bright side, we're one step closer to reaching the actual plot!<p> 


	4. Introduction

"You shouldn't be here!" he hissed at her in frustration. "What if you get hurt?"

"I won't get hurt," she whispered back indignantly. "I can take care of myself."

"You know that's not what I meant," he growled. "What if you were wrong? What if-"

"No," she interrupted him. "I refuse to accept that, even as a theory."

"I refuse to believe he's dead."

* * *

><p>"Well, this sucks," Dell stated, watching Meito sleep. "I can't have my cancer sticks and Meito's gonna be out for a while. Maybe I should've carried the brat after all. It would've saved me from the torture now."<p>

He sighed and sank back into his pillows. He didn't understand why he had to stay overnight when he only had a few cuts and bruises. It's not like he and Haku could afford hospital bills. But Haku, being the older sister and therefore responsible for Dell had said,

"You will stay there and force yourself to enjoy it! If you get an infection because you wouldn't suck up your pride and stay in a hospital for one night, we'll have even bigger bills to pay. Oh, and pick up my order from the liquor store on you way home."

Then she had uttered a dramatic sigh and hung up the phone on her half-sibling. _Typical Haku, _Dell had thought, rolling his eyes. _She refuses to stay when she gets alcohol poisoning, yet I have to for non life threatening wounds. I'm not sure whether or not to call her a hypocrite or to be thankful she cares so much. Maybe I'll use both._

_Hmmm…Haku, the caring sadist. Yeah, that's nice and paradoxical. Len would be proud._

At that thought, Dell had banged his head against the nearest hard surface, which was the wall behind him.

_I take it back. If I'm comparing myself to **him, **then I was clearly injured in the fall. Maybe staying here won't be so bad…_

That thought seemed light years away. How had he even _considered _the idea that staying in the hospital of Darkness could be enjoyable in any way? The doctor was a boy who wasn't even out of high school, and if any more were lurking around, they were certainly good at hiding. The food was terrible in general, but for some reason the milk, which came in pink half-pint cartons, was delicious. Dell figured it was laced with something that could kill him. Milk shouldn't taste _that _good.

But even though the day had started bad, it hadn't gotten worse. Or better, for that matter. At least Dell was conscious, unlike poor Meito, who had dropped into a deep sleep the second he sat down in Gumi's car. Since then, he hadn't woken up once, nor did he show any intention of waking up soon. The doctor (_Mikuo, was it? Sounds familiar...) _was worried about Meito being in such an unbreakable sleep since he had suffered a Grade 3 concussion. But Meito wouldn't wake up no matter what was done to him, so Mikuo had simply sighed and told Dell to buzz for a nurse if his roommate ever woke up. Dell, who hadn't been paying much attention, muttered something close to an agreement.

Mikuo tried not to slap something. He might've been only sixteen, but he knew what he was doing. Would someone at least _listen _to him? Heck, even pretending to listen to him would have made Mikuo happy. No one, from his peers to strangers on the street, ever seemed to give Mikuo the time of day, and it drove him _insane. _Every day, he prayed that someone, _anyone, _would walk up to him and ask for his opinion or just start a random conversation. It would be better to know that he was at least noticed by others. But that never happened.

Nothing happened, that is, until Mikuo met _them._

* * *

><p>Meiko's eyelids twitched as she began to awaken from sleep. She opened them a crack and stared up at the sunlight filtering down through a window with blinds that needed dusting badly. As her thoughts organized themselves, she became more and more panicked. There had been the fight on the rooftop…Meito…Kaito's reappearance ...and the blond brat… She closed her eyes, getting stressed from the overwhelming thoughts.<p>

_Kaito! _As that thought registered fully in her brain, Meiko shot up from her position on the futon, only to instantly regret it. A sharp stab of pain was attacking her side, and the memory of being backstabbed washed over Meiko with a fresh wave of frustrating despair. Meito had tried to hurt her, and not out of blind rage or the effects of some other strong emotion. He'd been completely rational at the time, which meant that for once, Meiko was completely and utterly alone. This hurt more than the wound she'd reopened, and the brown haired woman grew angrier as she thought about it.

_Why? _she thought. _Why does everything fall apart just as it reaches perfection? Why, why, why, why,_

"Why?" she screeched, punching the space to her right. It just didn't seem fair. Every single time Meiko found happiness about something, it all fell apart right at the end, and she was left grasping at straws once again. First it was her family, then _that_, Kaito and Taito, and now, her own brother…

As she went through the cycle of anger, Meiko failed to notice that she had woken up the other occupant of the room. Kaito watched her through blurry eyes, still just a few steps behind what was going on. It annoyed him to no end, but Gakupo never told him anything, and noting about the city triggered his memory. It was scary enough with its condemned buildings and cracked and deserted sidewalks in the daytime, so Kaito rarely went out at night, when the city of Darkness seemed to be truly haunted. He wanted his memories back, not for people to remember him at his funeral.

"Meiko?" he asked.

The woman, anger still burning with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns, turned her head to look down at the man next to her.

"You…" she growled, and from the way her eyes were narrowed to slits with dilated pupils and the near growling quality of her voice, Kaito had the good sense to get as far away as possible in a small amount of time. All traces of grogginess gone, he crouched beneath the window, muscles tense and eyes searching Meiko to predict what she would do next. She stood up and stretched, ignoring the pain her reopened wound must have been giving her, only to crouch down on all fours, staring straight at Kaito.

* * *

><p>"<em>You are just like a cat, Meiko," Kaito panted as they rested after a sparring session. The afternoon sun shone on his face through a gap in the trees, and despite being warm enough already, Kaito soaked in the sun's warmth. It wasn't very often he got a chance to be alone with Meiko, worry-free and his typical clueless self. <em>

"_Clever, flexible, and annoyingly-able-to-jump-out-of-anywhere."_

"_Well if I'm the cat," she replied, smirking, "you must be the dog. Loyal, clumsy, and willing-to-follow-his-master-to-certain-doom." Meiko let the words hang in the air, waiting for the delayed reaction she was sure Kaito would have. After all, unless someone's life was in imminent danger, Kaito was pretty slow on catching up with what others were implying. Well, maybe not slow, per say, but too innocent. Kaito was simply too innocent for his own good._

"_Hey!" retorted Kaito. "I'd have stopped you before we got to the point where everything was headed for certain doom!"_

_Meiko's smirk got wider. "Forgetting something?" she purred._

_Blushing, Kaito added, "And you're not my master…"_

_Meiko laughed her loud, booming laugh, and Kaito couldn't help but join in. It was such a pleasant day, and for once there were no missions to worry about or hit men tracking them down. Everything, he dared to say, was perfect._

* * *

><p>Kicking aside Kaito's sleeping place, Meiko leaped for him, only to scratch the wall. Kaito had rolled to his right, narrowly avoiding the legs of a small table which held a half-eaten bowl of sticky rice and a bouquet of Tuberose in a fishbowl. He quickly righted himself and, pushing off the badly scratched wooden floor, tackled Meiko. They hit the floor with a crash that rattled the apartment and Kaito tried to figure out a way to subdue Meiko (who was arguably stronger then him) without hurting her too badly. Wriggling, Meiko freed one of her legs and brought her heel down on Kaito's ankle, causing a garbled sound of pain and his grip on her to loosen.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Day 1<em>

_Crap. Just crap. This shouldn't be happening, and that's not including the fact that I'm writing in a journal I stole from Nigaito. Why did they attack? From what I can tell, Mother hasn't acted on** those **impulses for a while. That aside, he promised he wouldn't come back for us until the red moon of the Rakshas Sacrifices… Someone gave her up…_

_But who? The only person with any reason to hold a grudge against Mother is Father (Why do I call him that?) unless, of course, Zeito, Akaito, and Kikaito remember enough of that time to hold it against her. Considering the kind of person Father is, they probably do remember, but Zeito might be they only one to act on his negative emotions. Plus, his body was the only one not there. It's all very suspicious, but I can't do anything about it until I get some more information, which I can't even start until I manage to get Kaito and myself out of here. They're definitely still out looking for us, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I sure am glad that sandstorm hit when it did. If it hadn't, we'd be dead by now._

_Optimistically (I must be exhausted if I'm thinking like this), I do have a few leads to work with, however vague. The man I'm looking for- his name is Kion Duo, and he's a charming yet egotistical bastard. Lots of women fall for him, and as such he has a **lot **of children. Not that he bothers to claim us. Should I tell Kaito? No. I'll tell him on a need to know basis. It's better this way._

_But that doesn't give me a lot. Kion has his own personal assassins, and they're the ones that took out our family. I think. But could Zeito have something to do with it? He never really liked the rest of us, except for maybe mother on one of his good days. Along with his missing body, I can't help but put Zeito right up there with Kion. Have I been repeating myself? I don't think I should care all that much as long as it's relevant. Well, I'm exhausted. Maybe I'll be able to think better in the morning._

_Signed,_

_Taito (because I'm not related to **him**, nor do I plan on claiming myself to be)_

* * *

><p>Smiling smugly, Meiko flipped Kaito onto his back, catching him fully off guard as he reeled from the sudden flood of unconnected memories. His blue eyes were full of confusion and he was starting to develop a headache from the mental trauma of the last few hours and Meiko trying to break his face wasn't helping the situation. Kaito was only barely managing to hold back her fists, and she had pinned him in such a way that he was starting to loose the feeling in his legs.<p>

The two of them, in their fight spawned of Meiko's misdirected anger, failed to hear the sound of voices coming up the stairs, or the click of the key in the lock. They didn't hear the unmistakable creak of the front door as it opened, the sharp, metallic, yet quiet sound of a sword being unsheathed, or the sound of shoes against the hardwood flooring.

"Gakupo, no!" Luka screeched. Finally drawn out of their bubble, Kaito and Meiko turned their heads to see the tip of Gakupo's katana centimeters away from Meiko's throat. A thin trail of blood ran down its edge and a drop of the scarlet liquid fell to the floor below. Meiko, who had been snapped out of her anger, looked farther up the katana's blade to see a shocked Gakupo with traces of rage still crossing his face being held back by Luka, who, through a mix of misfortune and a lack of speed had only stopped the purple-haired man from decapitating Meiko by using one arm to twist him to the side and the other to grab the blade of his weapon. By the way her hand was twisted as she gripped the katana, Luka undoubtedly had a long and deep cut right now.

"I don't think you can handle this right now," she ground out, and using her good hand, she knocked him out with a strike to the back of the neck.

"Never looses its charm…" she mused aloud, setting Gakupo down carefully on the floor. She glanced at Kaito and Meiko briefly, then stood upright and walked over to the bathroom, where she could be heard searching through the mess and bandaging her wound. When Luka came out a short while later, Meiko had freed Kaito and the two were sitting next to each other, breathing heavily. Meiko was holding her side and staring at the floor in guilt. Kaito stared off into space, more confused than ever. Noiselessly, Luka walked up to Kaito and placed a rag over his nose and mouth. Instead of fighting back, he breathed in deeply and slumped to the floor.

"Chloroform?" Meiko asked without looking up.

"Yeah," answered Luka. "It makes you wonder how paranoid Gakupo can get. You should see some of the stuff in his medicine cabinet." She turned to watch Meiko. "If it wasn't such a long way down, I'd have put you under too."

Meiko looked up at the younger woman pleadingly.

"Luka, can I stay with you for a few days?" Her wide, tearing eyes and cracked voice put the answer in Luka's mouth before she thought it through completely.

"Of course you can," Luka replied sweetly. Helping Meiko up, the two then set out of Gakupo's apartment and into the street, where Gakupo's motorcycle rested, a lone raven in an empty field. Despite everything, Meiko smiled.

"Still breaking the rules, are we?" she asked, and in reply Luka stuck out her tongue.

"Just get on."

* * *

><p>Mikuo sat at his desk, dutifully reviewing his current patient files. Coming across something interesting, he double checked the database to be sure.<p>

"Cousins?" he asked the empty air. "Who would've thought."

* * *

><p>AN: By my calculations, it is now mid-afternoon of the next day. (Yup, you can totally stretch out less than 24 hours for quite a long time. I've read a few novels like that...)

1. I don't really want to end this here, but it works out for the best like this. Otherwise the time skips between scenes will get kind of awkward.

2. Thank you for the reviews! I leave them in my inbox and read them over for inspiration.


	5. Relationships

He breathed into the shell of her ear, knowing full well the effect it was having on her.

He chuckled, low and sinister.

"Gotcha'."

* * *

><p>The bright, mid-morning, sunlight shone through the window and lit up the white hospital room as though it were a sun catcher. Dell squinted as he pulled on his jeans, not yet adjusted to the light and too lazy to change out of his hospital gown in the bathroom. The staff had washed his original clothing for him, and he was grateful to them for their kindness, even if he was secretly wondering if they charged him extra for that.<p>

As he tugged his head through the top of his shirt and fought with the fabric to find the sleeves, Dell thought of Meito, who had not yet woken up since falling asleep the day before. Mikuo had been slightly worried about that, but remained firm in his belief that Meito was fine and would awaken soon.

"See how he moves every so often?" Mikuo had said to Dell last night. "While he is sleeping for quite a bit longer than what's considered safe, he's still going through a normal sleep pattern."

Since he had actually been paying attention that time, Dell gave a small hum of agreement, and shut off the light once Mikuo had left to sleep.

Now that it was morning, Dell watched as Meito's eyelids twitched and flickered in his sleep. Was he dreaming? The silver haired man vaguely remembered reading somewhere that when people reached the deepest (and last) stage of sleep, they dreamed, and that when people dreamed, their eyes moved behind their eyelids. Soon after, they would wake up.

Biting his lip to hold back an exasperated sigh, Dell ran his fingers through Meito's hair, attempting to comb the disheveled mess. Knowing that he wasn't yet conscious enough to remember anything, Dell spoke aloud.

"I'm not doing this for you, you know. It's just that, having grown up with my long-haired sister, I feel a compelling urge to make sure people keep their hair neat."

After a few minutes, Dell was satisfied with his handiwork and walked to the door. With his right hand on the handle, he said,

"Dear boy, may you wake up to the noonday sun in your eyes."

Snickering, Dell opened the door and walked into the hallway, making sure to close the door behind him as softly as possible.

* * *

><p>"Tadaima!" Dell called into the apartment, taking off his shoes by the door. "Haku, are you here?"<p>

Not hearing a response, Dell became worried. He walked into the kitchen space that was only separated from the dining room with a counter, expecting to find a note of some kind. There was none, and that alone threw the silver haired man into a panic. No matter what kind of crazy job he had managed to get himself into, he could always count on the fact that his half-sister would be waiting for him at home, or that she had gone out and would be home soon.

But for her to just disappear…it wasn't something Haku did. She hated making Dell worry. Well, White Haku hated making Dell worry. Black Haku took joy in his pain, and Grey Haku was an enigma that only came out every so often. Thinking about the different personalities of his sister made Dell release the sigh he had been holding in earlier. He'd forgotten about them since Haku had mostly stayed as White Haku, or WH, for the last few months, and he'd been hoping that the other two had somehow ceased to exist. So much for that idea.

Running a hand through his hair, Dell reached for his cell phone on the counter next to him, wanting to see if he had any new messages. Once he flipped it on, he was greeted with the familiar screen telling him that he had one new text message from the last person he wanted to think about right now: Akita Neru.

'Meet me,' the message read simply. Dell growled. The only reason why he'd been at the hospital in the first place was _because_ of Neru and the higher ups, and he was in no mood to deal with Voyakiloid while Haku was missing. Then again, it wasn't as if he had a choice.

Slipping his cell into his pocket, Dell headed back to the front door and stuffed his feet back into his sneakers, wanting to get everything over and done with as quickly as possible. Making sure to lock the door behind him, Dell headed out into the street with a scowl on his face and his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his sweater. Not only did he have to deal with a whole new set of problems this early in the day, he'd forgotten to grab a pack of cigarettes on his way out of the kitchen. Now he couldn't even annoy Neru with his favorite habit.

As he walked down the road, Dell tossed his cell phone into the air and caught it in different ways that didn't involve actually looking at it. Despite being perceived as a workaholic, Dell was actually just a very time-efficient procrastinator who barely made deadlines and found that he always had both too much time and too many things to do at once. People just happened to see him at that crucial last moment when he was cramming everything together and trying to make sure it would get past the scrutiny of whoever he was giving it to. Thus, his reputation as a workaholic was born.

But the fact that he had become a master at catching things without looking was beside the point. Right now, walking up the steps to the remarkably clean and not-in-a-state of disrepair, Dell growled. He really didn't want to see Neru at that moment. Hanging his head in defeat, Dell knocked on the wooden door to Neru's office, hoping that maybe she wouldn't be in.

"Come in," came the curt reply. _So much for being out, _Dell thought.

He entered the room with a blank expression on his face, not wanting Neru to decipher anything that had been going on in his head since he woke up. For a minute Dell stood in front of Neru in silence, staring at her as she sat behind her desk with her chin resting atop her folded hands and stared back at him, an equally blank expression on her face. She raised an eyebrow at him, clearly expecting Dell to already know what he wished to hear.

Not one to give in to pressure easily, Dell recounted his adventures of the last two days without a single flicker of a change in his expression. When he was finished, Neru stared at her hands for a moment.

_So I can't figure out what she's thinking, as always, _Dell thought bitterly.

"Will Meito be fit to work anytime soon?" she asked, a small dusting of concern lacing her words.

"No," said Dell, shaking his head. "He needs to rest for a few weeks, at the very least."

Neru sighed. "No matter how you look at it, this was a complete failure in every way."

Dell cringed a bit on the inside, even if he did agree with Neru for once. Not only had they failed their mission, two out of the three in the trio were incapacitated for a number of months, and after that Len would still need to rehabilitate his leg and Meito would have to be careful about hitting his head. It was a complete humiliation.

"I'll send you a text later with your new instructions," Neru continued.

"And you can't tell me them now?" Dell asked, beginning to get irked.

"I don't know them yet," Neru replied simply. The beginnings of a smirk were on her face, and Dell repressed the urge to hurt her.

Instead, he nodded to her and headed across the industrial blue carpet and out the door, closing it behind him with barely a sound, a habit he had picked up from years of sneaking around at night. He was just about to leave the building when he heard Neru's voice through the door.

"Yes, he's alright," she said.

A pause.

"No. It was a complete failure."

Another pause. Dell realized then that she must be taking to her boss about how his mission went, which meant that she must have been using the office building phone, which in turn meant that he could listen to their conversation through the phone in the hallway.

"What do you want to do about it?" Neru asked.

"We'll have to take more drastic measures if we want to come out of this successful," said an unfamiliar voice. _Is that the leader? _Dell asked himself. _I can't tell whether or not that voice is female or male._

"Have him burn it down," The voice continued. "Without a home to return to, it'll become easier to flush out the pest and his new company."

"But what about-" Neru began to ask, only to be cut off.

"Sacrifices must be made in the path to righteousness."

"Yes, sir."

"Oh, and Dell," the voice said after a pause.

"Improve your eavesdropping skills."

Dell slammed the phone down on the receiver and sped away.

* * *

><p>Meito's eyelids twitched as he woke up from his long sleep. Blinking a few times, he opened his eyes to their fullest, only to shut them from the agitating bright light. Tentatively, thinking that it was only a natural reflex of waking up from sleeping, Meito tried to adjust his eyes to the light but soon found that he couldn't. All he was getting in exchange for his efforts was a headache. Giving up on trying to see, Meito pulled a pillow out from beneath his head and hid beneath it. With the shade granted by the pillow, Meito was finally able to see what was going on around him.<p>

With the pure whiteness of it all, Meito could tell he was in a hospital, yet he couldn't figure out why or how he had gotten there. All he remembered was spending the day with Dell and Len, but after that, nothing. Hadn't he been looking for someone? Wait…was he looking for someone, or was it something? Had he been looking for anything at all? Meito closed his eyes and was about to go back to sleep when he had a sudden urge to open his eyes again and found himself staring into a pair of green-tinted, Jay's wing blue eyes.

"Hello, I'm Mikuo, your doctor," said the eyes. "Can you hear me?"

A mouth and lips came into view and Meito found himself looking at the face of a teenage boy that couldn't be much older than Len. He had seen a lot of surprising things in his short life, but if this was true it certainly topped the rest.

"Yes," croaked Meito from his position beneath his pillow. "Could you turn off the light, please?"

The boy stood up fully and Meito only caught a glimpse of him before his disappeared and the bright sunlight that had assaulted him earlier finally started to dim.

"Is that better?" asked Mikuo from across the room.

Meito removed the pillow covering his head and noticed that with the windows covered and the lights off, it was about as bright as a thick forest at twilight. In other words, the light was just bright enough for Meito to be comfortable. He started to nod in response to Mikuo's question, but the motion made him feel nauseous, so he had to cut it off awkwardly and lift his head back up slowly.

Mikuo's face gave nothing away, but Meito was sure that the boy had noticed and taken note of everything that Meito had done in the last few minutes. Tilting his head slowly, Meito finally realized that his head was wrapped quite tightly in bandages. Concerned, he reached up to touch them.

"What happened to me?"

* * *

><p>"Man!" complained Rin. "Kiyoteru-sensei gave us detention until the end of the year! Again!"<p>

"It could be worse," countered Miku. "I mean, at least this year we're only going to clean two floors of the main building since it's almost halfway through the school year. Last time we had to go through all four of the school's buildings…"

"But that doesn't make it any less work!" Rin argued. "It just means that he's gonna make us thoroughly clean everything until it sparkles like polished diamonds!"

Miku couldn't think of a comeback for that, so she kept her mouth shut and looked at the road ahead. She could just faintly see their house in the distance. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Rin stomp on anthills and crush the insects under her shoes as they crossed the city limits sign which marked the halfway point of their journey. It was a full four miles from the last public bus stop to the house, and since Ted, the overly-friendly bus driver, was running extra rounds in the next town over he couldn't drop them off at their front door.

On top of all of that, Len had mysteriously disappeared. Was he skipping class? Was he kidnapped on his way to school? Had he finally pissed off the yakuza enough to make them howl for his head? Miku snickered at that last one. Rin would like it.

"Hey, Rin," she called out. "Stop tormenting the innocent insects for a minute and help me figure out what happened to Len today."

"Innocent!" Rin exclaimed. "Those little pests are _not _innocent! They crawled into my shoes once and ran up my leg while we were in the middle of class. Do you know how weird it is to just have a random feeling that something is crawling up your leg and look down to find out that it's _true_! I'm telling ya, he was killed by the yakuza on his way home."

"You're clearly not getting the point of telling people what questions of theirs you're answering," Miku stated flatly. "If it wasn't someone close to you, they'd be lost by now."

"What?" answered Rin. "I'm talking to you, and you get it, so it shouldn't matter what I say, right? Besides, you know he's involved with _someone _he's not supposed to be. I just can't prove it to Luka yet. But I will, and then the glorious day will come when _Len _is the one in trouble and not _us_!"

Miku smiled. That was a pretty decent plan if you factored out the one thing that completely destroyed it. Len knew how to cover his tracks or get someone to unknowingly do it for him. He was like a fox that just never got caught by an angry farmer. It annoyed Rin and Miku to no end.

The two girls walked side by side into the setting sun, not bothering to speed up or slow down since they'd get home eventually, and no matter when they got there, Luka was going to be the responsible one and ask why they were home so late. Then Miku, being the one who could actually say something without getting excited and going on and on and on about it, would answer that they had gotten detention for the umpteenth time. Luka would ask why, and Miku would give her one of various reasons that had accumulated over the years. Then Luka would sigh and ask how long it was this time and Miku would tell her and then Rin would try and get Luka to do their homework for them since they were _so _tired from the general boredom and the long trip home. This time was no different. Well, almost.

"Luka-nee," Rin asked, "where's Len?"

"Hospital," Luka said, chopping leeks.

"Why?"

"He cracked his tibia."

"How?"

"He fell."

"Why did he fall?"

"He got hit by a car."

"Why?"

"Because he walks in the middle of the road with his headphones in."

"Why?"

"Because he has a blatant disregard for most rules."

"Why?"

"We _are_ talking about Len."

Luka lifted her cutting board and used her knife to slide the chopped vegetable into the stew she was making, once again displaying her fabulous ability to end a conversation in her favor. Rin steamed silently as she slinked out of the kitchen and up the stairs to the room she shared with Miku, slamming the door behind her.

"Miku, don't you have homework to do?" asked Luka. Miku had been standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room for a while, not doing anything other than staring straight ahead. She blinked twice, and the distant look faded from her face.

"Hmm? Oh, I finished it at school. We didn't have a lot to do today because half of our teachers were out at a workshop."

Luka gave a small hum of agreement as she stirred whatever it was she had bubbling in her pot.

"Okay. Why don't you go help Rin? Or you could help me down here, if you prefer."

"I'll go stay with Rin."

As she turned to follow Rin's path up the stairs, Miku asked Luka about something that Rin had forgotten to get to before Luka cut her off.

"When will Len be back?"

"Tomorrow, most likely," answered Luka. "I'll be staying home to tutor him."

She looked up from her cooking so she was on eye-level with Miku.

"Anything else?"

"No, Nee-chan."

Luka smiled softly.

"Alright, then. Off with you, or you'll be the one doing the cooking."

For the first time that day, Miku couldn't help but laugh.

* * *

><p>AN: Well, we're finally catching up with the different time periods the characters are in. My original plan was to have this go on for a few more scenes, but I preferred to end it here. On another note, after the next chapter the Intro is over and we'll be starting on the main plot! (I hope/think.)

Anyone bold enough to take a wild guess at what happens next?

Also, thank you all for your wonderful reviews! (And for the hits, which I check just to see if people are reading this...)


	6. Pain

"Let go!" she cried again, breaking free from his grasp. She ran to the edge of the cliff and bent her knees to jump.

"NO!"

* * *

><p>Certain that neither Miku nor Rin would disturb her, Luka turned the knob on the stove to shut it off, closed the lid on the pot to keep that night's dinner warm, and walked over to Meiko's room. Tentatively, she opened the door, not wanting to wake up the older woman should she be sleeping.<p>

From what she could tell, Meiko's life was terrible at the moment…No, she had been living through a life of misfortune to begin with. Feeling ever saddened by her friend's predicament, Luka walked into the dark room and kneeled next to Meiko, placing a hand on her forehead to check for fever. Luka nearly flinched at the surprising amount of heat, but tried to tell herself that it was just her hand, which was usually cold to begin with. Admitting defeat, Luka brushed a section of sweat-slicked hair out of Meiko's face and tucked in the blanket around her.

_Sorry, but this is for your own good. If you've got a fever it means that wound's infected, and it'll go from bad to worse fast._

Luka walked back out into the hallway and down to the kitchen. Going to the ledge beneath the window, she picked up the phone and dialed a now familiar number.

The phone was answered after a few rings.

"Hello?" she asked. "Do you take house calls?"

* * *

><p>"Do you want to accept my help yet?" Miku asked Rin. She lay on top of her bed, tossing an apple into the air and thinking about whether or not to eat it.<p>

"No," huffed Rin. "I can do this fine on my own."

"Okay, then. Suit yourself," said Miku, deciding that, yes, she did want to eat the apple. She caught it one last time and sat up to eat it as she watched her roommate struggle with their Algebra homework. Not wanting to admit that she didn't get it, Rin had done all her other homework during detention and slipped her math textbook discreetly into her backpack, trying to hide it from Miku and Kiyoteru. It didn't work.

After another five minutes, Kiyoteru had stood up at his desk and announced that they would start cleaning. (Which only further convinced Rin that he was, in fact, watching them at all times.) Knowing by now that sighing and complaining would not only not work, but earn them more work, the two girls obediently got out of their seats and headed out into the hallway to the closet.

Forty-five minutes and several arguments later, Rin and Miku were released from school for the day. They cheered slightly, but all hope was drained from them when they learned that Ted would have to drop them off at the official bus stop and not at their house, hence a few miles worth of walking and Rin's troubles now.

As she ate her apple, Miku stretched a leg and touched the slanted ceiling with her foot, tracing patterns in it idly as she continued to wait for her friend. When she became tired of that, she rolled over onto her stomach and let the hand holding the apple droop to the floor as she pressed her face into the blue and white quilt that served as her blanket. Although only ten minutes had passed, she was bored beyond belief.

"Rin, do you want to go see why Luka was so eager to get us up here?" Miku asked, knowing that Rin would pounce on an excuse to avoid her math homework for a while. True to her habits, Rin threw her pencil out of her hand and turned to Miku in excitement.

"Let's go!"

* * *

><p>Mikuo knocked on the door to the large white house softly, not wanting to seem rude or loud. It wouldn't do good to leave a bad impression on what seemed to be his only client recently. Then, realizing that no one ever opened the door when he knocked because he did it so softly, Mikuo raised his fist to knock again when the door was opened by a girl his age with long, floor reaching teal pigtails. Next to her was a shorter, blond haired girl whose eyes were shining with energy.<p>

"Are you here for Luka-nee-chan?" she asked excitedly. Mikuo nodded, slightly taken aback by the sheer energy radiating off the girl. Come to think of it, she rather closely resembled Len. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the girl interrupted.

"Yes! I knew it! I knew she had a thing for younger guys! I knew it! But," she added, standing on her toes to inspect Mikuo more closely, "there's no way you could be any older than Miku-chan here, which makes Luka a-"

She was cut off by said Luka smacking her over the head with a frozen fish.

"Ah, um, uh," stammered Mikuo, still shocked by the shorter of the two girls.. "G-g-g-good evening, Megurine-san and company."

Luka stared at him, solemn and scary, still holding her fish (tuna, if he was correct) as though she was just waiting for the blonde to start speaking.

"You'll have to excuse Rin," she said, turning her gaze to the now pouting girl. "She doesn't quite understand the meaning of being polite."

* * *

><p>"<em>Come back here, you thief!" yelled the shopkeeper.<em>

_Len smirked as he heard the baker's infamous words. No matter how hard he tried, he could never, _would never, _catch Len. The boy was just too quick. _

_Once he was out of the general vicinity of the baker's store and back in the safety of the alleyways, Len allowed himself to slow down. He continued at a steady trot with silent steps, making sure that no one was following. After a time of doubling back over his path and taking extra turns, Len arrived at an uncovered manhole in the center of a four-way intersection of paths. Then, after tucking the bread into his jacket, he lowered himself onto the ladder hidden by the darkness of the sewer and climbed down into the ever deepening shadows._

_After lowering a foot only to feel the empty space where the last rung should have been, Len hopped off the ladder and walked along the slimy cement path into total black. Having been here many times before, Len knew the path he had to take by heart, all the way down to how many footsteps he needed and how long or short his strides would have to be to prevent slipping. A flashlight might be too risky, as there were occasional sewer workers down here._

_Soon enough, Len arrived at his destination, a hole in the sewer wall that opened into the basement of an abandoned warehouse on the east side of the city. He stood silently at the mouth of the hole and peered into the gloom that was the basement, trying to figure out if anyone else were there. Becoming confident that he was alone after five minutes had passed without so much as a rat scurrying by, Len stepped carefully over the bricks that littered the warehouse entrance to the sewer and made his way to the staircase on his left. Len walked up slowly, still not completely trusting his instincts that no one else was there._

_When he reached the top, he once again paused for a reconnaissance of the room. Nothing but stacks of wooden crates seemed to be around. Finally at ease that he was alone, Len called out into the darkness._

"_Rin? Rin, are you there?"_

_A shuffling movement to his lower right caught Len's attention, and he turned to see Rin poke her head out of a blanket._

"_Len!" she exclaimed, smiling. "I was able to get a blanket for myself so we don't have to share anymore. No more freezing cold nights!"_

_Len smiled back and walked over to her. He kneeled down and took out the bread he had stolen earlier._

"_And I got dinner."_

_He sat down next to Rin and handed her one of the loaves. _

"_It's probably cold by now, but it's fresh, and it's more than we've had lately."_

_Rin smiled again, but it no longer reached her eyes, which were dull as well. Len put his head against his knees and looked in the opposite direction._

"_If you hate this so much, why did you leave? Why did you give all that up for this?"_

_Len rose to his feet, angry, and turned to Rin._

"_Why did you give up your perfect, fairytale life for me? Why! I'm nothing but a street urchin that everyone hates! You can't even handle it! You're always cold or tired or hungry or…GAH! Why, Rin, why?"_

_His chest heaved as he struggled to regain his breath from yelling. The words seemed to echo in the large room, and Rin wouldn't look Len in the eye. She just stared down at her bread and let her hair hide her face._

"_Fine, then," Len growled. "I'll be back later."_

_With that, he stomped past her and headed back to the doorway he had just come from a few minutes before. In his rage, he almost missed Rin's quiet reply._

"_It didn't feel like home there," she whispered._

_Len pause for a moment, as though he were thinking about turning around, but he continued down the stone staircase._

_That night, Rin went to sleep to the echo of Len's frustrated screams and the sound of his fists striking the sewer walls._

* * *

><p>Gasping, Len awakened from his nightmare. He hadn't had a flashback like that for a while. Was being alone in the hospital giving him to much time to think? Len closed his eyes and tried to shut out the memories he worked so hard to forget. Finding himself unable to do so, Len sighed and let his left arm hang over the side of the bed. More tired than before, Len closed his eyes, only to be greeted by haunted memories of years past.<p>

* * *

><p>Mikuo rebandaged Meiko's wound.<p>

"I'll get you antibiotics for the infection, and they should bring the fever down as well. For now, make sure that she doesn't stress herself and try to keep the wound from reopening."

Luka nodded.

"Would you like me to drive you back into the city? I'm sure it's dark by now."

Mikuo chewed his lip and looked at the floor as he tried to think of a good way to refuse her. What he eventually said was,

"Could you?"

He could almost swear that he saw Luka smile a bit as he answered, but she had turned around and left the room before he got a good look at her face. Mikuo scurried after her, not wanting to get lost in the exceptionally large house that was Luka's home. As they walked past the living room and into the mudroom, Mikuo couldn't help but ask the burning question at the front of his mind.

"How did you get such a big house?"

"I inherited it," Luka replied as she slipped her feet into a pair of moccasins.

Mikuo was dissatisfied with such a short answer, but held his tongue. If Luka didn't want to talk about it, he wouldn't press her. Everyone had their share of secrets.

The young doctor was still thinking about secrecy and how the people he'd been seeing lately seemed to be full of them as he unlocked the door to his house and walked in. After an argument that lasted for at least five minutes, Luka had practically forced Mikuo to let her drive him home once they had finished their errand at the pharmacy. Now he looked into the darkened front room and called out into the darkness.

"Tadaima."

No response. Mikuo took off his shoes and placed them on the mat next to the door. He then shut it behind him and walked up the stairs directly in front of it, not bothering to turn on any lights. Reaching the top, he turned left and headed into his mother's room, where a lit candle rested on top of drawer to the front and right of the door. It's weak yellow light illuminated Mikuo's mother collapsed on the floor, but unlike how he usually found her, there were no telltale signs of how she had gotten there. Mikuo sighed and checked to make sure she was still alive.

_Everyone has secrets, and I'm no different._

* * *

><p>Rin sat up in bed and stretched, yawning. Across the room, Miku continued to sleep like the dead, even with the sunlight from the window in their slanted ceiling shining directly onto her face. As she finished up her stretch, Rin remembered that last night Luka had told her that Len would be coming home today. Excited, she reached for the blow horn beneath her bed and quickly walked over to Miku. Just as she was about to set it off, Miku turned over so that her face wasn't in the sun and said that if Rin dared set that thing off she'd strangle her. From past experiences, Rin rolled the horn back under her bed.<p>

"Well," she practically shouted, "since you're already awake, I'm reminding you that today is the day that Len-kun comes home!" She jumped in joy and became to ramble about how happy she was and how happy Miku should be, not noticing that her friend had slunk out of bed and into the bathroom that was conveniently nest to it. She was grateful for that, but not for the fact that today was a Saturday, which meant that she would be forced to bear Rin's speeches for the whole day. Luka had class, so it wasn't like she could dump Rin on her, and Len probably wouldn't have been too cooperative even if he was there.

Miku brushed her teeth harder in annoyance. Well, at least they had chores to do, and after only a month of having them together, Luka made sure that each of the children was working alone for most of the day. There was that to look forward to.

* * *

><p>"This is degrading," Len said moodily. He had his arms crossed and his back hunched over as he sulked in the wheelchair that Luka was pushing. It didn't help that the late afternoon sun was directly in his eyes and he had to shield them with his arms so that he could sulk properly.<p>

"If this is degrading," Luka said, "I can always take your clothing and force you to go to school naked. I'm sure your classmates would be happy."

Len scowled and muttered something under his breath, which didn't go unnoticed by Luka.

"Now, now," she chastised, "No need to curse me out. I can always leave you here, you know. In fact, Mikuo-sensei would have preferred it if you stayed, but you know that I'm not going to be paying those bills."

Len could almost picture the evil smirk on Luka's face. He knew she was right, and he didn't really want to stay in the hospital any longer than he had to. This was doubly reinforced by the fact that of all of Len's nightmares, the worst ones always took place in hospitals. Always.

"Damn woman," he muttered.

* * *

><p>AN:

Hello everyone~

Sorry I haven't updated since last month, but school and a lack of motivation were starting to get to me. More importantly, now we're starting to get somewhere! I can now officially declare that Chapter 7 is where the plot really starts! Up til now we've met most of the characters and seen their general personalities. Now they'll actually interact with each other. I promise that Meiko, Meito, Kaito, and Gakupo will reappear conscious in the next chapter!

So...do you guys have any questions, comments, concerns...?  
>It kills me to say this, but could you leave a review? Even half a letter would make me happy. I don't like to guilt trip people, but we're 6 chapters, over 10,000 words, and nearly 9 months in and shorter one-shots have more responses! I know a bunch of people are reading this, and if you want you could leave a review in code (leave a key) or in your native language...I'll read them. rantle


	7. Fire

At that moment, perhaps due to the rain, he slipped, and that was all she needed. At the same moment his tekagi cut through her chest and into the life giving organ inside, she slashed at his eyes. As the two pulled away from each other and the adrenaline disappeared, the true extent of their wounds became evident.

The onlooker, by now completely terrified of the boy he had once marked as sweet and innocent, couldn't decide which of the bloodcurdling screams scared him more.

* * *

><p>Dell emptied the last of the gasoline cans onto the dead grass surrounding the building and threw it in through an open window. He took a matchbox out of his back pocket, but instead of lighting a match as he'd intended, he simply held his arms stiffly at his sides.<p>

_What am I doing? Stalking, stealing, hacking. That I can live with. I know what I'm doing, and the consequences are always clear._

The silver-haired male clenched the matchbox tighter, as though keeping his grip on the object would prevent him from having to make a choice.

_But arson, murder…How could I live with myself? How could I go on everyday knowing that I was responsible for someone's death?_

He blinked and looked up at the building before him. Despite the thoughts that were running through his head, he didn't feel anything at all. He lit a match and tossed it into the grass, watching as the flames eagerly caught on the gasoline and its bed of tinder. Without a second glance, Dell turned around and began to walk away, watching his shadow flicker in the light of the flames.

When the wind picked up and blew the bangs out of his face, Dell laughed and turned around.

* * *

><p>Kaito opened his eyes slowly, blinking in the light of the late afternoon sun. He was comfortably warm and felt like he had just awoken from a long nap. Not wanting to disrupt that peaceful feeling, Kaito occupied himself with looking around. Directly in front of him was Gakupo, who was still sleeping. Kaito smiled. Gakupo's perpetually stressed look was completely absent when he was asleep.<p>

He watched as a strand of hair moved with the older man's breathing, and in a bout of childishness reached out to move it. His hand was just centimeters away from Gakupo's face when said person's eyes fluttered open. After taking a moment to get his bearings, Gakupo focused his eyes upon Kaito's outstretched hand and sighed, but before he could say anything a new realization came to mind and he shot up like a rocket.

"Where is she?" he asked, panicking.

Kaito blinked, confused, and rose to a sitting position. He tilted his head to the side and asked who she was.

Gakupo growled out Meiko's name.

"Oh!" exclaimed Kaito. "Well, after we woke up from the building collapse-"

"You were involved with that?" Gakupo interrupted. He put a hand to his forehead and sighed.

"Carry on."

"Well, after that we started walking but Meiko-chan passed out so I carried her here and used her hair pins to pick the lock and treated her wound and then we fell asleep."

He paused to breathe.

"But when we woke up she started attacking me but I didn't want to hurt her so I didn't fight back and then you came in with Luka-nee and then you attacked Meiko so Luka-nee put you to sleep with chloroform and then she did the same to me. I woke up before you and it was really peaceful since no one else was here so I was going to fix the strand of hair that fell in your face but then you woke up and you looked stressed again and then you confused me which ends with me telling you this story!"

Gakupo looked thoughtful.

"If she's injured, she's probably with Luka…" He rose to his feet and beckoned Kaito to do the same.

"Come on, Kaito. We're going to go on a trip."

Kaito jumped to his feet, apparently not feeling his scratches or bruises.

"Really?" he asked, wide-eyed. "Where are we going?"

"To find Meiko."

"Yippee!"

Gakupo walked over to the front door and placed his hand on the handle, only to instantly pull it back. The brass was burning hot. Hoping he was wrong, Gakupo grabbed a glove from its place on a shelf neighboring the door and gripped the handle again, successfully opening the door this time. Smoke began to enter the room, and Gakupo could see the faint glow of flames that were coming up the stairs. He slammed the door shut.

"Change of plans," he said, groaning inwardly. "Kaito, could you give me that blanket by your foot?"

Obediently, Kaito gathered the blanket into his arms and threw it to Gakupo, who promptly ran to the bathroom and soaked it under the flow of water from the bathtub's faucet. He returned and frantically stuck the blanket around the door. Then Gakupo gathered the rest of the blankets and used them as sponges to wet the walls around the door. When he finished, he turned back to Kaito, who had stood and waited for him the whole time.

"Is the fire escape safe?" he asked.

"Nope!" Kaito replied cheerfully. "I think we broke off the rest of it the last time we had to evacuate."

"In that case," Gakupo said grimly, "find something heavy."

He only had to wait a few seconds for Kaito to find something that fit the description.

"Will these work?" the blue haired man asked, tapping his foot against a pile of cinderblocks in the far corner of the room.

Gakupo nodded, not wanting to ask why cinderblocks were even in the apartment, let alone the living room turned bedroom. Didn't they have a closet for miscellaneous items?

"Open that window over there, the one facing the neighboring building."

Kaito did as he was told.

"Now, help me use these cinderblocks to break the window on the opposite building. We're going to jump across and get down from there."

Gakupo walked over to the pile of blocks and used his feet to push them over to wear Kaito stood at the window. Hoping for the best, he selected a stable looking block and took aim at the glass about seven feet away. With a huff, he hurled the block across the gap and into the glass window, where it smashed through the center, leaving a good sized hole with jagged edges.

From there, the two continued to throw cinder blocks at what remained of the glass until only a few pieces were left along the edges and only one block remained. Gakupo lifted himself onto the windowsill and stared at the other building, ignoring the fact that if he missed his target it was a long fall to the asphalt below.

"I'll go first and open the window for you," he stated, leaning forward and tensing his legs to jump. Kaito watched as his friend leaped across the gap and through the window, getting scratched by the glass edges in the process. He disappeared into the building, where Kaito heard him land with a crash among the cinderblocks they had thrown. A short time after the sound of moving items ceased, Gakupo reappeared and opened the window for Kaito.

"Come on," he said, smiling.

Not wasting a single second, Kaito mimicked the actions Gakupo had taken earlier, only to find that the fall from the rooftop a few nights previous had left a bruise on his foot. He jumped awkwardly and only barely caught hold of the windowsill, crashing into the brick wall instead of falling to an early death. Gakupo grabbed him and helped Kaito through the window.

Although they would have like nothing more than to stop and take a break, the two men were quickly back on their feet and tearing down the stairs of the building, jumping across gaps where the wood had rotted and fallen and hoping that the fire had not yet come this far. When they finally reached the bottom, the two were gasping for breath and forced to take a break. Then, much too soon, they were on their feet again.

Gakupo opened the old front door and was greeted by the heat of the fire blazing next door. Sirens wailed in the distance. Through the smoky haze, Gakupo thought he saw someone just standing in front of the fire, staring at it, but he quickly shook it off. No one would be stupid enough to just stand there watching a building get eaten by flames, and if they were…maybe it wasn't for the worst.

He ran into the street, holding up his turtle neck to cover his mouth and nose, frustrated that he'd forgotten to bring a wet cloth to breathe through. Forgotten…something else important? Gakupo struggled to remember as he ran farther away from the fire, finally stopping a good mile away before realizing that Kaito was no longer with him. Frustrated, he slapped his forehead and pulled his turtle neck back up before charging back toward the fire.

Meanwhile, with his head nearly completely wrapped in his scarf, Kaito was struggling to convince a boy to get away from the flames. Kaito had seen him in his peripheral vision as he and Gakupo were exiting the building next to theirs and stopped to get a good look. The other male had seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite remember why. Was it the silver hair? That aside, why was he just staring at the burning building like that? Wasn't he afraid of getting burned? More importantly, wasn't he going to choke from smoke inhalation?

"Oi!" Kaito called out, turning to run toward to boy. No response. Could it be that his scarf was muffling the sound of his voice? Kaito pulled down the section covering his mouth and tried again.

"Oi!" he tried again, only this time he breathed in too much smoke and erupted into a coughing fit. He pulled his scarf back over his mouth and was happy that he had reached the boy.

Giving up with words, Kaito put his hand on the boy's shoulder and turned him so they were facing each other. For a few seconds, there was a look of total surprise on the younger male's face, but it settled into anger and he pulled away from Kaito to go back to his previous occupation. They repeated this twice more before the silver haired kid decided that he had had enough and told Kaito to leave him alone. With the light of the fire in his red eyes and the fierce expression on his face, the boy seemed to be something…inhuman.

Kaito stepped back for a moment and then lunged forward and grabbed the boy around the waist, slinging him over his shoulder. As he left as quickly as possible, the boy pounded against Kaito's back, demanding to be let go. This didn't help Kaito at all, and the effects of the fire were beginning to show. His eyes were stinging and it hurt to breathe. If his clothes had caught fire, he couldn't tell, but he knew he needed to find clean air soon. Maybe he could crawl along the ground, but there was no way he could also drag the still protesting boy with him…

Wanting to get rid of the burning sensation, Kaito rubbed at his eyes. He couldn't go on like this. He trudged forward, starting to fall into a dreamlike quality, barely noticing that the person slung over his shoulder had stopped moving, and so not noticing when that weight was lifted from him or the supporting arm that was now wrapped around him.

In a haze, he saw a flash of pink and then felt a vague coolness all over his face. Jumbled voices echoed around him, and the last thing he saw before passing out was a blurry face etched with concern.

* * *

><p>AN: I am sorry that this is so short (well, by my standards...) but adding the next part would completely ruin the mood. Also, that whole thing with Dell is not random.

Are any of you interested in the character's pasts?


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